Learner Profile Plan

Classroom Fact Sheet

Geographic Location and Cultural Significance

The following is a description of the classroom for which this paper will be intended. It reflects the classroom position I would most prefer to work within, and the area in which I will most likely interview.

The following plan is for a fifth grade class in a rural town in Minnesota. The school district population size is around 5000 students for the entire school district. The average grade has around 350 students and an average of 25 students per classroom. The cultural distribution is 95% white, 1% African American, 3% Asian, 1% Native American, and 1% Hispanic. Approximately 15% of the school district participates in the free or reduced lunch program. And approximately 10% of the student population is receiving special education services.

The Classroom Dynamics

In this fifth grade class, there are 25 students of whom 12 are boys and 13 are girls. Groups are usually figured to have near equal amounts of both genders represented, and seating arrangement is usually boy/girl/boy/girl in layout. Groups are also configured to contain mix ability levels within a single group. We have two students that receive special education services. One of these students has a full time paraprofessional to aid with physical restrictions only, and the other student receives special education services for behavioral issues and requires no paraprofessional in the room; but the student receives two special service sessions a day in addition to his regular classes. Whenever possible these sessions are done within the classroom during an individual work time slot. The distribution of achievement on standard tests would follow along the lines of a bell curve, with three students struggling with the subject matter to a great extent, and two students that perform at a much higher level than is expected for their age and grade. The remaining students fall somewhere in between these five students. There is one student of color in my classroom, who is a first generation American with parents who emigrated from Laos. Whenever possible I have all parent/teacher communications translated into their native language to facilitate communication. I also try to incorporate this culture into the curriculum whenever possible as a means of multicultural education (this is also done with other cultures). Although the student is proficient in English, this student is considered ESL and provisions are made when necessary.

Classroom Environment and Layout

For reference Figures 1, 2, and 3 show a layout of this classroom. Our classroom is large enough for individual work areas for every student or group work as well as three creative learning stations, one of which is always technology related, one art and science station, and one discovery/group center. There is also a quiet/library center for individual study or reading related activities. The different environments’ primary purposes are as enrichment centers, but can also serve as practice or tutoring center as well. The quiet area also doubles as a specific area for in-room special education service areas during individual work time. These learning environments can accommodate small (2 students) to larger (5- 8 students) groups. We make use of several layout options (see Figure 1, 2, & 3 to see three options) according to the particular learning experience currently being conducted (i.e. group activities, work tables, centers, testing etc…). The classroom also contains a small library of books, games, and manipulatives that the students can access at appropriate times to aid in understanding materials currently studied, practicing already learned skills, or investigating future skills to be learned. The room is filled with posters and interesting facts that I have accumulated that are related to important classroom rules, procedures, life’s lessons that tie in academic concepts, and inspirational models that represent all races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds.

School District Resources and Policies

The schools resources are limited as the population is small and income levels of the town are mostly lower to middle class. However money for special projects, trips, and activities has always easily been raised from the community and the school encourages students to get involved in the money raising events. The school is also very community driven, and regularly asks community members to come in to share their experiences with the students and help with tutoring and other needed projects. It also uses peer tutoring and older student peer tutoring to benefit the students in our school as well as the high school students.

My classroom has a regular volunteer from the community that comes in three days a week to work individually with those students needing extra help or to aid in any other classroom needs. It is my responsibility to designate assignments or projects for this volunteer to work on with each student.

Aspects of Development

The academic development of the students is measured by a mixture of grades given for assignments and tests, teacher evaluations, required standardized tests, teacher-student contracts, and student self reports. These are all considered to give a wider range of insight into achievement abilities and learning styles than are represented on a standardized test. In my class at the beginning of the year, each student devises an individual project goal contract in different subject areas that relates to the curriculum taught and the student’s own perceived abilities and interests. This is then carried out each quarter in the same fashion. Although project suggestions are given, a certain amount of leeway is allowed for the student to independently study subjects of interest as well as created group projects that reflect their learning in real life situations. Each student’s grade will partially reflect their ability to reach the goals set for themselves in these contracts. The first two quarters the students are heavily guided toward appropriate goals through examples and modeling and are not penalized for failure to reach goals. Progress towards goals is sufficient. As the year progresses, the student is allow to construct these goals with less guidance as the process becomes familiar and the student becomes responsible for reaching set goals. My job is to understand the needs of each student and guided them toward appropriate goals when needed. A celebration ceremony of goals complete is held each quarter and the students’ families and the community are invited to attend.

The students’ emotional and physical development is mostly measured by observation. The students participate in physical education with a separate teacher in this department and are graded according to this teacher’s guidelines. There are standard eye and hearing tests that test for physical impairments in these areas, and any other physical development delay is noted by me and/or other school personnel and reported to the appropriate administration official, the parents, and/or the school nurse according to the case.

Emotional development concerns are handled in a similar manner as physical development needs by observation and reporting after an evaluation on my personal classroom management practices has been conducted as this could be a possible cause. The student is then referred to appropriate person such as a school psychologist, special education services, and/or the parent as deemed necessary after consulting with the appropriate school administration personnel.

This particular classroom and school district would be considered a typical rural/suburban Eastern Minnesota prototype, with my own personal touches with in the classroom. It reflects those things I have witnessed in the classroom I have volunteered, and a few ideas I have accumulated from working within different school districts.

Learning Theories

Behavioral Approaches

The behavioral approach to education is well suited for behavior management and motivation. This can be helpful in shaping desired classroom behavior, study habits, self-management, and motivation for learning. The basic premise in this approach is that behavior can be shaped as a consequence of conditioning with use of either a presentation of a desired condition or removal of an undesirable condition to strengthen or weaken a behavior of interest.

Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical conditioning, associating a response to new stimuli, can be used to influence positive attitudes, reduce anxiety, and help discriminate and generalize appropriately. Operant conditioning, strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors, can be effectively used in a classroom as a reinforcement or punishment. The most common use in a classroom is to give a positive or negative reinforcement to encourage a behavior, but it may be occasionally necessary to discourage a behavior through a punishment. Another important area in this label is using prompts and cues to guide the student’s behavior. These behavioral approach uses in the classroom are outlined in the table below.

Applied Behavior Analysis

This is the science of using behavioral methods to understand and change behavior. This method starts by identifying a behavior to change, applying an intervention using antecedents, consequences or both, and noting the results. This is especially useful for a teacher who has identified a problem area with individual students or the classroom as a whole. Although it may be a time consuming method, it can give the teacher a better understanding of the particular problem and the best way in which to help solve that problem. There are many methods that can be used under this principle including the ones in the above paragraph, as well as the Premack principle, shaping, positive practice, negative reinforcement, satiation, reprimands, response cost, and social isolations to name a few. Some of these methods will be discussed for our class in the table below.

Other Behavioral Approaches

Other methods that help in behavior management, motivation, and self-management are: group consequences, token economies, contingency contracts, and self-management techniques. These methods can be reviewed in the table below.

Behavior Method	Area of Effectiveness for student/classroom	Application in my 5^th grade class
Classical Conditioning	Attitude toward learning/ getting them ready to learn	Associate positive experiences with learning. Examples would be: using a favorite treat to learn math facts (Red and green M&M’s for learning negative numbers for example); relaxing atmosphere to read or study by suing soft music and comfortable surroundings.
Classical Conditioning	Reducing anxiety in learning or test-taking. Relieving stress so learning can take place.	Giving frequent un-graded tests to help student’s anxiety toward tests by familiarity
Reinforcement/Operant Conditioning	To encourage students to complete their homework; encourage good citizenship among classmates. Increase desirable behaviors in the classroom.	Extra free time as a reward for 10 homework assignments turned in on time; specific praise for a student who has demonstrated good citizenship according to the class constitution.
“Praise and Ignore” Approach/reinforcement	Increase student attention to tasks and decrease disruptive behavior. Classroom management.	Identify and praise those students who are quietly working at their seats during individual seatwork time, while ignoring those who are not.
Premack Principle/reinforcement	Increase motivation and attention to seatwork.	After completing a worksheet of fractions, allowing students to have “free choice” games from the game closet.
Shaping/reinforcement	Reinforce progress toward mastering a difficult math problem by acknowledging small successes. Increase motivation.	Giving partial credit for the proper set-up of a difficult math problem even though the answer is incorrect.
Token Reinforcement	Increase desirable behavior in class, and following the class rules and procedures as well as personal academic progress.	Giving “class money” that can be exchanged for prizes, snacks, free time, or other desirable rewards for observed desirable behaviors.
Contingency Contracts/Self-management	Increase student involvement in preparing their academic and personal goals, self-management techniques, motivation and interest.	Academic goal(s) set at the beginning of the quarter, with special recognition for reaching those goals at the end. (This is also an effective tool for teaching self management techniques)
Response Cost/punishment	Diminishing an undesirable classroom behaviors and rule breaking. Classroom management.	Having minutes deducted from a set number of minutes for free-time at a certain time of the day; a chart system that gives “stars” for desirable behavior and improvement, and removes the “stars” for undesirable behavior.
Satiation/punishment	Extinguish particular classroom disruption	After repeated private jokes to a friend, requesting a student make jokes for the whole class until he has tired of this activity.

Table 1. Behavioral Approaches in the Classroom.

The above table lays out a few of the behavioral approaches that can be used in our 5^th grade classroom. Punishment techniques are used sparingly as reinforcement is a better approach to managing behaviors. In my classroom, all of these methods may be used at any time, but the primary ones that are built into the layout and planning of the class are: creating a pleasant environment in our library area; token economies that are represented with a chart of stars for various achievements (academic, personal, community) that can be traded for various rewards (get out of homework cards, sweets and snacks, and other desirable rewards; and finally contingency contracts that represent student constructed goals for a quarter that result in recognition with successful completion (different awards are given for different levels of completion).

The behavioral methods are more concerned with external, observable behaviors and classroom management practices then some of the other approaches. Next we turn to cognitive approaches which would be characterized as more internal and concentrate on how learning is acquired, remembered and used.

Cognitive Approaches

Cognitive approaches to learning differ from behavioral approaches in that they view how the mind attempts to make sense of the world. This knowledge construction then leads to learning and finally the behavior is affected by this learning. This contrasts the behavioral approach that believes behaviors are the learning process.

The cognitivist is primarily concerned with what knowledge the person already has, as this will affect current learning. To what extent and how complex the knowledge structure is currently will determine the interest level and therefore the motivation leading to attention levels and perception levels that then lead to learning and how well information is remembered or forgotten.

The categories of knowledge are useful to understand the level at which the information has been processed. Declarative knowledge is knowledge that is simply “knowing that” something, such as knowing the formula for the area of a triangle. It is not a deeply processed level of knowledge. Procedural knowledge is “knowing how” to do something such as knowing how to solve the area of a triangle using the area formula. Conditional knowledge is “knowing when and how” to use declarative and/or procedural knowledge. This could be explained in the above scenario as a student recognizing that in order to find how much carpet is to be lain down in a room; one must find the area of the room shape. This is the deepest level of processing and the one that most cognitivist ultimately strive for in teaching. However, declarative and procedural knowledge are also important in teaching and may be necessary before conditional knowledge can be learned. There are several teaching methods that can be used that aim at these particular levels. Declarative knowledge can be encouraged through the use of mnemonics and memorization aides. Procedural knowledge can be fostered by helping students move through the three stages of automated basic skills (skills applied without conscience thought) which are: cognitive (learning stage, rely on declarative knowledge and problem-solving), associative stage (where individual steps are “chunked” together), and autonomous (where skills are applied without much thought). This process can be accomplished through teaching prerequisite knowledge and practicing with feedback.

Metacognition

Metacognition is the knowledge about our own thinking process. It involves the three kinds of knowledge presented above. In order for students to be metacognitve learners or knowing how they best learn, they must have declarative knowledge about themselves as learners knowing what works; procedural knowledge about how to use a learning strategy; and finally the conditional knowledge of knowing when and why to apply certain strategies. As teachers, metacognition is the ultimate goal for our students. We want them to be able to become conscious participants in what, how, when, and why they learn something. This can be accomplished by asking students questions to get them involved in the process of learning such as: “What did you learn about yourselves as mathematicians today when solving fractions; What methods did you use that help you understand the problem best?” This can help get students actively thinking about metacognitive strategies.

We now move on to an important model in cognitive theories, the information processing model of memory.

Information Processing

The information processing model compares the human mind and memory to the process of information processing in a computer. The information processing model involves the sensory memory that receives information from the senses and is briefly stored in the sensory registry (1-3 seconds). Perception of this information is then responsible for directing it to working memory if it is deemed important and attention is drawn to this sensory experience. Therefore perception of an object and attention play an important part in memory and ultimately learning. Gaining and maintaining attention is something as teachers we can strive for. Many strategies such as signals, clear purposes, and surprises and curiosities can help teachers gain and maintain their students’ attention.

Working memory is the “work bench” of this process. It is here where information can be processed, incorporated or revised with prior knowledge structures; or new structures can be formed. If the information is unneeded then it is discarded. The central executive is in charge of directing attention, monitoring, and other mental resources, while the phonological loop (responsible for repeating something to hold it in memory; i.e. repeating a phone number) and the visuospatial sketchpad (holds visual and spatial information) help rehearse and prepare information for long term storage. Some research (Paivio’s Dual-coding Theory), has shown that information is more readily stored when both a visual and verbal representation are presented together because they are “coded” in two areas. This system can easily be overloaded and holds information for about 15-20 seconds. Strategies to retain information in working memory can be useful for teachers working with students. A few of these strategies are: maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal, and chunking. These can be encouraged in students by repeating information, helping them to connect the information with previously learned information, and helping them to chunk by combining information into meaningful units.

Finally long term memory is the final step in this process and can store a probable infinite amount of information for an indefinite timeframe. This is where information is stored after being “worked with” in working memory. In the computer model, it is like “saving” to the hard disk. This information then can be retrieved by working memory for future use.

There are two types of long term memory: implicit and explicit. Implicit memories are not consciously recalled but still influence the way we behave such as when a person who has been bitten by a barking dog jumps back when hearing a dog bark. Explicit memory is memory that is deliberately recalled, such as when a student correctly spells a word on her spelling test after studying for it the night before.

Usually long term memory is not thought of as individual pieces of information stored randomly. As with a computer (i.e. files for a particular computer game), the human brain will store related information together. These are called propositional networks which are a set of interconnected concepts and relationships. Another important structure in long term memory is schemas which are basic structures for organizing information or concepts. This can be a much larger structure than the propositional network, in that it can connect to other similar concepts and images that can go on indefinitely. These networks and schemas can be useful to teachers because by activating a correct schema they can help students to more easily store information about a concept they are teaching. An example would be story grammar (typical structure or organization for a category of stories). If the students are going to read a “moral” story, a teacher may give the following outline to fill in while reading: Characters; situation; what should the character(s) do; what did the character(s) do; what were the consequences; what did they learn. This will activate the students “moral story” schema and will help them to more easily code and store this particular story.

Concept Learning

Concepts are general categories of ideas, objects, people or experiences that share certain properties. The concepts share a set of defining attributions. It is thought that people have a both prototype (best representation of a concept such a couch for the concept of furniture) and exemplars (actual memories of specific representations in a concept such as a green, amply cushioned couch in your living room) to represent a concept.

Concept attainment model.

The concept attainment model suggests three phases for presenting concepts: phase 1 – presentation of data and identification of concept (this is usually best started by presenting a prototype example of a member in the concept then some non-examples); phase 2 – testing attainment of the concept ( this can be accomplished by the teacher answering yes or no questions to students’ proposed examples); and phase 3 – analysis of thinking strategies (students review the hypothesis and what attributes were correct and how they fit).

Teaching through discovery.

Teaching through discovery was studied by Jerome Bruner. According to him, learning will be more meaningful, useful and memorable if the structure of the subject is understood instead of merely memorized. This can be accomplished by active, discovery learning and inductive reasoning. Discovery learning is accomplished by the teacher giving clues or examples and allowing the student to discover the structure through the interrelationships and inductive reasoning (using specific examples to formulate general principles). Inductive reasoning is guided by intuitive thinking on the part of the student. Students use examples to make educated guesses that are either confirmed or disproved by the teacher. When using discovery learning, it has been found that guided discovery (where the teacher provides direction) is usually best in a classroom setting.

Teaching through exposition.

In contrast to Bruner’s discovery learning, Ausbel’s expository teaching believes that information should be presented by the teacher in a well ordered manner from general to more specific concepts. This is accomplished by connecting it to existing knowledge to make it meaningful learning instead of just route memorization. The first step in this style of teaching is using advanced organizers. Advanced organizers do three things: direct attention to important information to be learned; present the relationships between the information to be learned; and remind of previously learned information that is relevant to the current information. Advanced organizers can be comparative which activates existing schemas, or expository which provides a framework for new information. Next the teacher should present examples to point out similarities and differences. This helps the student to discriminate the concept to be learned.

Problem Solving

We now move to problem solving which is a cognitive process used to find new ways to solve a new problem when previously learned methods have failed or a new problem type is encountered. A general problem solving strategy (strategies that are useful in many situations) with the acronym IDEAL, was identified by Branford and Stein. This acronym stands for: “Identify problems and opportunities; Define goals and represent the problem; Explore possible strategies; Anticipate outcomes and Act; and Look back and Learn.” (Woolfolk, 2004, p.284) These important steps help students to work out problems for themselves. This skill is important to develop in our students, and must be encouraged by teachers. It is important that as teacher we show students that many different problem-solving strategies may be possible for one solution. For instance in a math class, a teacher may ask how many ways are there to represent a multiplication problem and ask students to work out as many as possible. The answer should be varied and the teacher should point out many possible solutions such as: the standard or intermediate algorithm, use of a number line, a rectangular array, or even repeated addition. All of these ways lead to the correct answer. Students should be encouraged to find these problems solving ways on there own to foster a meaningful learning experience.

In the table below are some additional examples of cognitive approaches to teaching that can be used in my 5^th grade classroom.

Cognitive Method	Area of Effectiveness for student	Application in my 5^th grade class
Gaining attention/Signaling	Directing perception and attention for working memory	To gain the classes attention, the rule of flipping off the light to signal eyes forward, mouths closed.
Gaining attention/Surprise	Gaining attention to sensory information to be stored in working memory and ultimately long term memory by surprise.	Start, in your scariest voice possible, reciting your favorite part of an Edgar Allen Poe poem to be learned by the class.
Gaining attention/Making purpose clear Activating Schema/Previously learned material	Showing students how this information ties into previously learned information./ Learning new information	Showing how the events leading to the US involvement in WWII (Vietnam, etc...) are similar/different to the event leading to the War in Iraq.
Expository/Similar and differences	Use of prior knowledge to tie in new concepts/Learning new information	Same scenario as above
Declarative knowledge/ Chain mnemonics	Memorization of facts/ Learning new declarative knowledge	“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” “Every Good Boy Does Fine” (Treble Scale of Music)
Procedural knowledge	Learning a new math concept	Repeatedly solving problems on the board individually on a sheet of paper, while the teacher comments on method used.
Metacognition	Helping students understand how to become better learners.	Today we learned about the process of plant fertilization. What part of this process was most confusing for you? What part was easiest to understand? What helped you finally understand this process? Write down the thoughts that helped you learn this process.
Elaboration/Long term memory	Tie together concepts/Learning a new objective in a unit.	Yesterday we learned that saving is an important step in word processing; today we will learn how to retrieve the document we saved.
Retaining new information	Helping the students retain information by presenting both visual and verbal information.	Present the weather cycle of water through a PowerPoint presentation and discussion
Guided discovery	Students construct their own procedure for solving a problem. Especially useful when dealing with an abstract concept that is difficult to explain.	In a math class learning about negative numbers, given students an even amount of red and black chips and ask in what combination would the answer be equal to the numeral zero.
Advanced Organizers/Expository	Organizing and structuring note taking and studying. This concept is useful to help teach students organization, study habits, as well as in-depth concepts that may require extra help in obtaining.	Giving a student with learning disabilities or EBD an outline of key concepts of today’s lecture with images and pages numbers in the book to help the student stay focused and organized during the lesson, instead of struggling with note taking. (can be used for the entire class)
Problem-Solving	Learning how to use problem-solving strategies. This is a very important skill to teach students to help them be able to generalize academic skills outside of the classroom, and find ways to solve problems on their own.	In math presenting the class with the question, “How many ways can you find to represent the number 24? Be as creative as possible.” Have them compare their answers in small groups before giving to the whole class.

Table 2. Cognitive Approaches in the Classroom.

In our 5^th grade class, all of the above strategies are used according to the lessons and concepts to be learned. The cognitive approaches tend to be implemented in the learning process of the classroom. They would be for the most part, pre-planned activities or objectives that are in the daily or unit lesson preparation. In our classroom, we allow for many different experiences in cognitive approaches such as guided discovery in small groups, and problem-solving techniques as well as lectures, and whole class discussions. All of the techniques are important, but the goal of every unit is to move beyond declarative and procedural knowledge to conditional knowledge and metacognition, so the students can apply the knowledge to many different and real life situations as well as understand how they can become better learners.

We now turn out attention to the constructionist’s or social cognitivist’s view point on learning. This approach dives into the social influences faced by students.

Social Cognitive/Constructivist Approaches

Unlike the previous two approaches that concentrated primarily on the individual student, social cognitive approaches consider the affects of social influences on student learning, especially parents, peers and teachers. Social learning theory emphasizes the learning through observation of others. Bandura distinguished between the acquisition of knowledge and the observable performances based on that knowledge. Humans are influenced by what they observe in their environment, and this is characterized in their behavior. They learn through observing the consequences of others actions. This point is important for teachers because as educators we must be aware of observable actions that are out of our control (i.e. home life, media) and those in which we can control (i.e. school environment, social learning interactions among students in the class) that influence learning for our students. Social cognitive learning theory goes one step beyond to state that humans can internalize these observances into their own beliefs, expectations, and perceptions. By using these theories, teachers can incorporate important opportunities for learning by using techniques such as modeling, using peer models, and publicly reinforcing positive behavior. In order for this type of learning to be effective, teachers should ensure that the students are paying attention to important aspects of the situation; retaining information by using mental representations such as verbal steps; practicing, getting feedback and coaching on the subtle points of the behavior; and providing motivation such as rewards to encourage the behavior.

Constructivism

Constructivism is the belief that learners take active roles in building understanding and making sense of information. There are three types: Psychological/individual that is concerned with how the individual builds their cognitive and emotional structures of knowledge; social constructivism is concerned with how the social and cultural sources affect learning and knowledge construction; and finally social constructivism is also concerned about how social learning and cultural knowledge is passed on to other new members of a society.

Situated learning is the idea that knowledge learned in real life situations is situation specific and may not transfer well into other situations. This is particularly interesting to the field of education because we must make sure that the skills we teach our students are able to transfer into the appropriate situations. Learning to add and subtract on a worksheet must also be identified as being a skill needed for balancing a check book. This makes authentic learning important and one of the important steps in constructivist’s learning strategies.

Although constructivists do not agree on one single theory, common elements have been agreed upon in the educational environment. These include: creating a complex, real-world, and relevant learning environment; making sure students can engage in social negotiation (collaboration with others and respect for differences of opinion) and shared responsibility in learning tasks; using of multiple perspectives and representations of content; encouraging self-awareness and understanding that knowledge is constructed; and encouraging ownership in learning. These important steps help students learn to engage their environment, interact with it, and actively participate in their learning through this interaction. We now turn to a few strategies using the constructivist perspective.

Inquiry-based learning.

Inquiry learning uses research techniques to help students pose solutions to puzzling questions or situations. The steps in inquiry learning are: formulation of hypothesis; collection of data to test hypothesis; drawing conclusions; and reflection on the original problem and the thinking process needed to solve it. This is a very engaged learning strategy that allows the student to construct his or her own knowledge about the situation.

Problem-based learning.

Problem-based learning is similar to inquiry learning but uses a real-world scenario to investigate. This helps students to understand a problem in its context which helps the student gain interest and motivation. A type of this style of learning is called anchored instruction which uses a complex interesting situation as an anchor for learning. This is sometimes necessary as some problems are do not directly influence student’s lives and could thus be considered not authentic.

Instructional conversations.

This type of teaching strategy uses whole class conversation to develop a knowledge structure. It is not a lecture given by the teacher, but rather the interaction of teacher and students as well as students with other students. It uses shared experiences, and thus gives new dimensions to knowledge areas. The teacher must take an active role to keep everyone engaged in the conversation and also to sum up what has been said. This technique can greatly influence learning and many different perspectives and experiences are included in this learning style. It can help other students gain perspective in a situation they may not have, had the teacher merely given a lecture.

Cognitive apprenticeships.

This method is employed as its name suggests. It is like an apprenticeship, in that an expert guides learning through modeling and guidance. The steps in this process are as follows: expert models performance; student is supported through coaching or tutoring; students receives conceptual scaffolding which fades as student becomes more proficient; student articulates his/her knowledge; student reflects on his/her progress comparing his/her performance to the expert’s; student explores new ways of application of skills. This method helps student see the correct way to apply knowledge, but also helps them become proficient enough to continue to apply the knowledge on their own and to construct new ways to apply their knowledge.

Fostering communities of learners (FCL).

Fostering communities of learners is “a system of interacting activities that result in a self-consciously active and reflective learning environment.” (Woolfolk, 2004, p.339) This is accomplished by individual groups researching one particular area in order to share the information with the entire class so the entire class can perform on the broader topic. This gives group responsibility to individual students, and requires participation and teaching in order for the whole class to perform well. This helps students develop a sense of interdependence on each other, and helps form a learning community.

Social Cognitive Method	Area of Effectiveness for student	Application in my 5^th grade class
Modeling	Showing students appropriate ways of accomplishing tasks.	Modeling the proper way to request information (in writing or fax) from a public records for information regarding genealogy records.
Authentic learning situations	Situation is which knowledge will be applied. Motivation, interest, and real-world applications	Construction of class website. Assignment of each group of students a role such as reporters, photographers, graphic designers, web designers, news and archives; with rotation of these roles throughout the year.
Group responsibility	Working in teams, resolving differences, accomplishing tasks as a group.	Graded group project for presentation on chosen topic for science class. Research, construction, and presentation are expected from the entire group, with role assignments assigned within the group. Teacher monitors each individual’s effort by meeting with the group once a week.
Multicultural education	Helps the student understand the world around and understand different ways of thinking and perceiving.	Teaching an entire week’s curriculum around Native American issues. Such as: geography - use of the treaties and concession of land by Native Americans; Math – using native recipes to teach fractions; Language Art – learn the history and symbols of the Cherokee language; Arts – using the Hopi pottery to introduce cultural art.
Inquiry	Problem solving, interest levels, motivation, and research application	Present the following question for analysis: “Why does ice float?” Have the students formulate a hypothesis and write down a few on the board. Allow students to interact with water, ice, and other related items to test there hypothesis. Draw conclusions a write them on the board. Ask students to think about the problem, how their solution was formed, and if it explains the problem.
Problem-based/Anchored Instruction	Problem solving, interest, motivation, real world application, critical thinking skills.	Pose the question: Why are we so dependant on foreign oil? Spend several days in the computer lab and library researching this question; have groups brainstorm about all the uses of oil; use topographical geography maps to explain where known oil is located; explain the oil refinement process. Have students keep records of their findings and their thoughts about the answers to the question. Come together and have students present their possible solutions or recommendations. Discuss how this situation could change.
Instructional conversations	Gain diverse perspectives from others, engage students to actively participate in learning, interest level, critical thinking skills.	What lead to Western expansion? Have the class discuss this topic. Asking probing questions and listing responses on the board. Sum up what has been said and highlight how the class responses fit in with other popular beliefs in this area.
Cognitive apprenticeships	Applying mathematical processes	When learning about how to solve word problems. The teacher uses a “talk out loud” process that models how to understand which words are important and which can be discarded to properly set-up a problem. This process is repeated and as time goes on the students may be questioned about which terms are important. The student is then asked to use the “talk out loud” procedure, and finally asked to use it “in their heads.”
Fostering communities of learners	Creating a cooperative community of learning, promote social skills and responsibility, giving ownership in learning.	Chose a related topic to one already learned in class (to give the students understanding of what is expected) such as politics of Civil War after studying the Revolutionary War. Break into small groups assign certain areas, allow time to research, construct a presentation, and time to do so. Test on all presented materials.

Table 3. Social Cognitive and Constructionist approaches in the classroom.

The role of social cognitivism and constructionism is very important in our classroom. These theories help our students to learn how to interact with the world around them, form social relationships, work with others, think critically about the world, and take responsibility for their own learning. In my 5^th grade class, the role of these approaches will be heavily relied upon in learning tasks to help give students the social skills, critical thinking skills, and metacognition they will need to apply what they learn in school to their lives. We now move on the role of motivation and learning environments in the classroom.

Motivation, Learning Environment & Planning

Motivation & Interest

Motivation plays an important role in classroom. It helps to direct student’s attention to the task and keeps them involved in learning that can ultimately lead to their success in the learning task. Two types of motivation have been identified: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is an internal state of motivation in which the activities are their own reward (such as building a model of your favorite car for fun). Extrinsic motivation is motivation created by external factors like rewards or punishments (this would be characterized by completing an assignment because the consequence of not completing it is staying in at recess). Meaningful, deeper learning is associated with intrinsic motivation. Therefore, as teachers, our goals should be to create lessons that tap into this type of motivation.

Behavioral approaches generally use extrinsic motivational strategies such as rewards and incentives. This can create motivation, but should not be overused, as it can actually decrease intrinsic motivation. Humanistic approaches support intrinsic motivation, stressing personal growth, fulfillment, and self-determination (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs fits here). Here the teacher structures lessons around the student’s inner resources such as intellectual achievement, aesthetic appreciation, and self-actualization which increase motivation as they are fulfilled. Cognitive views of motivation stress a person’s search for meaning, understanding, competence, and how the person views his/her own attributions and interpretations. Sociocultural views stress the participation and identity of a person within the community.

The theory of attribution (Weiner) associates motivation with the perceived cause of failure. Three characteristics are associated with this theory: locus (location of the cause); stability (changeability of the cause); and controllability (whether the student can control it or not). These factors influence motivation because they appear to influence expectancy and value. Stability is related to expectancy, locus is related to feelings of self-esteem, and controllability is related to emotions (guilt for lack of studying for example). When a student’s attributions are internal, stable, and uncontrollable, the level of motivation greatly declines. This is also related to the expectancy x value theory that states that motivation will be zero if either expectancy or value is zero.

Another factor in motivation is goal-orientation. Mastery goals (a personal intention of improving abilities and learning) are more effective in meaningful learning, than performance goals (an intention to seem competent or perform well in front of others). Interests and emotions is another very important factor in motivation. Students are more likely to pay attention to, learn, and remember events, images, and readings that provoke emotional responses or are related to personal interests.

All of these factors are important when designing lessons for teaching. Knowing student’s, their abilities, as well as likes and dislikes, are helpful when structuring lesson plans. Strategies that combat against the attributions associated with low motivation, and finding materials of value to the students, will greatly increase motivation. Many of the strategies listed in the tables in the learning theories section of this paper use motivational strategies. For specific incidence in our 5^th grade class please refer to Tables 1, 2, and 3 and note motivation and interest in the area of effectiveness column. Knowing your student’s abilities and interests help in planning for lessons that are motivating. When the student can succeed and assigns value to the material presented, motivation will increase as well as interest and self-esteem. Methods such as authentic learning situations, inquiry and problem-based learning, guided discovery, surprise, and shaping are a few approaches that can increase interest and motivation.

Learning Environment

Creating a learning environment starts before the year begins. Things such as rules and procedures, classroom layout, and classroom management procedures should be well though-out before the students arrive.

For the 5^th grade class, my plan is to have basic rules such as: respect others’ bodies, property and opinions; do not interrupt when someone is speaking and listen to what they are saying; treat others as you want to be treated; obey all the school rules. These will be laminated and posted in the classroom. On the first day of class, I will go over these “teacher rules” and explain why they are important. Then I will explain that we will also be making “class rules” that we as a class feel are important for our learning environment. I would like the students to feel that this classroom is their space as well as mine, and that we must work together to make a happy, safe, respectful learning environment. I will devote much of the first day to rule development and consequences (some will be those which we as a class have negotiated); and procedures. The procedures will be those I have previously thought out such as daily planner, homework, late assignments, late arrivals, absences, duty rotation, lining up and transitions, and participation in class discussions. The first week will be devoted to practicing, role-playing, and possibly revising student rules and procedures.

As seen in Figures 1, 2, and 3, I have considered layout of the classroom. I have three possible layouts to suit the needs of group work, individual work and class discussions, but alternative layouts may be necessary for different learning environments. I have tried to create spaces that promote individual and group creativity and motivation.

There is an area devoted to quiet time and reading. This is the library area, and contains comfortable bean bag chairs, carpet and a lamp as well as individual work desks that are divided from the rest of the class. This area can also serve as a make-up area for those who need extra time; a special services area that is in our class but without the distractions; or an area for students who may need to escape a situation in the classroom. I want this area to be comfortable and inviting.

The tech center is a table with our classroom computers. We also have a printer and scanner. I will also occasionally have other technical elements such as digital cameras, computer microscopes, and other educational tech toys that may be used in lessons or as a reward for free time.

The art and science area is an area where mess is allowed (and sometimes encouraged)! Using paints or other messy items will be contained in this area. Science projects that require room or extended time will also be using this area. If needed, it can also serve as another group area.

The discovery/group area is specifically set up for team and group work. The tables are larger than the other table in the room to allow for ample room for discovery and research. It can also be an area for games and crafts. The game and manipulative cabinets are close to these tables for this reason.

The walls of the classroom allow for multiple displays of rules, procedures, student displays, interesting facts, and academic principles. The displays will be changed at least once a month to keep it fresh.

The last area of the 5^th grade learning environment I shall discuss is the atmosphere I hope to convey. One practice I will use to create an open, respectful atmosphere is to open the day by allowing a “share my mood” time with the class. This will be accomplished by me starting with how I feel on that day (happy, sad, frustrated, excited, etc…). I will then open the floor to allow anyone else to share how they feel that particular day. This will allow everyone to understand how each other is feeling and be mindful of that when interacting with each other. I will also encourage students to talk to me privately during individual work time about any issues they feel may impede their learning experience for the day. I want my students to feel that this classroom is theirs and that they are in control of their learning as much as I am. My hope is by creating this type of atmosphere, motivation, interest and meaningful learning will follow.

Planning & Teaching Styles

The following table below highlights the relationship between the categories in Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain, and teaching styles. When planning instruction, this guide will highlight the most suited methods for a particular teaching style and the area of the cognitive domain in which it would best address. Although anything can be adapted, certain styles are more suited for different types of content. This will help in lesson planning for the 5^th grade classroom. When planning for this class a mixture of direct instruction, seatwork, group work, and student-centered activities will be used according to the lesson. Material that is basic skills, new information or information for memorization will more likely be taught using direct instruction, active teaching, seatwork or homework. While more in-depth concepts, social skills, applications, creativity, and self-regulation tasks will be taught using group-centered, student-centered, questioning, discussions, and cooperation techniques.

	Remembering	Understanding	Applying	Analyzing	Creating	Evaluating
Direct Instruction	Basic Skills Facts or memorization
Active Teaching
Seatwork
Homework
Questioning and Recitation
Group Discussion		Instructional Conversations
Student Centered	Reciprocal Teaching	Conceptual Change Whole Language
Teaching for Self-Regulation	Study methods Homework Goals setting
Teaching for Creativity		Brainstorming
Cooperation & Group Work	STAD Jigsaw		Reciprocal Questioning	Scripted Cooperation

Table 4. Lesson planning according to teaching style and cognitive domain.

In creating a learning environment there are many aspects a teacher must consider. Motivation, interest, learning environment, teacher responsiveness, and planning have been explained here. We now move on to assessing.

Assessment

Assessment in a classroom is a necessary and important part of a teacher’s job. The two major types of assessment are norm-referenced (comparing work to how it relates to others in the class) and criterion referenced (comparing to a set of performance standards). For the 5^th grade class, the primary form of assessment will be criterion referenced assessments. Norm-referenced assessments provide little motivation or achievement potential for most students in the class, and therefore, I feel this form of assessment is not appropriate for most items.

Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is a regular part of this 5^th grade class. State mandates require that we test language arts, math and science in 5^th grade using standardized testing. This form of testing will not be heavily weighted in my classroom grades; however, it will be used to see which areas the students in my class need work. Because of the NCLB act and the use of standardized testing to measure the effectiveness of the school districts and of my teaching ability, this form of testing with its faults is an important component of the student’s curriculum. However, it is my intentions not to “teach for the test.” I feel this cheats students out of a proper education. With this in mind, I will use standardized testing to better educate myself on my own deficiencies (comparing students results of previous years to this years), and to find individual weakness in students that need to be address. Because the reliability and (hopefully) the validity in this form of testing is relatively high, I feel that it will help as an evaluative (as explained above – for my abilities and student deficits, not as a grading evaluation) form of assessment.

All school district forms of standardized testing (basic skills, timed tests etc… not the MCA-II) will also be used in the manner described above. This information will also be given consideration for report card grading. If a student’s classroom work is on the borderline, evaluation of this type of assessment will be used to infer ability in a particular area. That being said, I do not feel timed testing necessarily reflects skills students have. Therefore I would prefer to use other methods that capture the student’s abilities in other types of assessments. This brings us to classroom assessment.

Classroom Assessment

As stated in the beginning of this paper, a variety of summative assessments will be used to determine class course grades. Assignments, objectives tests, essays, exhibitions, portfolios, journals, student evaluations, and student-teacher contracts will all be used to evaluate performances of the student. Depending on the material to be evaluated, one or more of these types may be given. By giving a range of different types of testing, each student should have an assessment on a particular subject in his or her most comfortable assessment style. I also hope to teach students how to do different types of assessment and help them evaluate themselves as learners and studiers, giving them an edge in middle and high school.

In the following paragraphs, I will demonstrate types of assessments used in this 5^th grade class.

Objective Testing

The following test sample and point scoring is a representative sample of objective testing in this 5^th grade class. This type of testing would be the usual form for a weekly mathematics review test. However, students will also be required to demonstrate real world application in some authentic assessment as well as assignments and peer review checking.

Weekly testing is preferred to one or two unit testing as meaningful learning has been associated with more frequent testing. For short answer problems in a mathematics test, partial credit will be given for a correct set-up with an incorrect answer because of calculation error. Also if shown work is not reflective of the answer (i.e. Not there or clearly the wrong application) an only partial points will be awarded. Short answer construction question will receive more weight than multiple choice answers in the overall grade to reduce guessing. The name of the student will be located on the back of the test and each question will be graded on all papers before moving on to reduce bias which will be standard practice on all exams.

Whenever the student has received a grade that is below what they feel they are capable of, I will give the option of a retake of a different form. This requires at least two samples of every objective test be written. For the below example, the same principles would be tested, but the questions and answers would be different (i.e. area of 12 ft by 4 ft – a) 24 ft², b)32ft², c)48ft², d) 60ft²; and represent -4 on the number line (labels would be at -8, 0, +8).

Sample objective test for Ms. Norton’s 5^th grade class.

Essay Testing

Essays will be used to evaluate students on critical thinking skills, creativity, concepts, and other items that do not fit well in objective tests. They may also be used in conjunction with objective questions to give the student an opportunity to demonstrate in depth a specific skill or concept. These questions will have clear objectives and a model or outline will be used to give students an understanding of what is expected. This model then will be used in grading the essay.

The following is a sample essay question with the model answer.

Ms. Norton’s 5^th grade sample essay question.

Portfolio

This type of assessment will be used to evaluate the teacher-student contracted goals that each student will construct for themselves at the beginning of each quarter. These contracts will be student constructed project goals chosen from a suggested list or independently constructed in specific subject areas. Project goals are goals for learning and performing new material, not academic goals such as doing better in math or understanding sentence structure. They must include the new material to be learned and how this will be demonstrated. The teacher’s job is to help students appropriately construct these project goals with the objective of independent goal construction by the 3^rd quarter. Each student must choose one project goal per subject area, but may choose additional goals in any area. Goals must be demonstrated by performable work. One service project goal must be included once during the academic year. Service goals can be carried out at school or in the community.

The teacher and student will work together to assign grading value to each project goal using objectives to be met. The student and teacher will meet once a week to review portfolio and the progress toward goals. The teacher will provide direction and suggestions for revisions. The student will also be asked to evaluate a peer’s portfolio according to the predetermined grading objectives. Peer evaluation will be done two weeks before the final project is due to allow the student time for revision before submission. The portfolio will contain materials, research, self-evaluations and statements, and work done to obtain these goals. For instance a student who has constructed the project goal of creating a school display explaining the pollution effects on the environment will include in the portfolio: journal entries, research articles, writes and rewrites of written material, samples gathered, video clips, and any other materials or performances including the final product plus an evaluation of the effort put forth. Thus the portfolio will serve as a guide to grading effort and will demonstrate the process of how the student conducts his or her work. The student will receive a grade on the portfolio, peer revisions for others, and final project goals reached. The student will not be penalized the first and second quarter for project goals unattained as goal construction and self-management skills are still being learned. After the second quarter, the student will be penalized for those goals he or she has not performed as the student should by the third understand his or her limitations and abilities.

Below is a student handout “Guide to your portfolio.” It includes the items that the students should include in the portfolio and things to remember. These items are used for grading the portfolio as seen in the scoring guide for the portfolio figure below. An important note to include is that the final project goal and contract grade is different than the portfolio grade. The portfolio grade will evaluate effort, progression, and self-determination.

Student Handout: Guide to your portfolio

Scoring guide to student project goal portfolio.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this leaner profile is for a 5^th grade rural Eastern Minnesota school district. In this class, several theories of learning are implemented in various areas to promote meaningful learning, conditional knowledge, and metacognition. Strategies for classroom management, layout, and teaching strategies have been suggested to provide a classroom environment that will help students to become critical thinkers that can apply the knowledge and information into real-life settings, and able to work effectively in group settings to become a community of learners. Several examples of teaching strategies and assessment measures have been given to how this information would be specifically applied to this 5^th grade class.